When it comes to detective-romance, surely everyone remembers Sherlock Holmes and his partner Watson, but another name never goes unnoticed either: the queen of crime, Agatha Christie. Born in England, 1890, she wrote over eighty books, becoming the most successful novelist in the history of world popular literature.
All her works stand out because of the gripping plot and the final surprise, as it is practically impossible for the reader to unravel the mystery of the crime before the outcome, and this is one of the greatest features in the writer’s style. With Hercule Poirot, one of her main fictional characters, Christie intrigues and involves us in each of her complex mysteries. Check below 5 of her best and most surprising books:
- And Then There Were None (1939)
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“And Then There Were None” was published in 1939, and is the best-selling police novel of all time. With no detective taking the reins, the story takes place on an island where ten people are initially invited for a job proposal.
Frighteningly, murders start to happen faithful to the verses of an old song, making everyone on the island become suspects. The work has already been diversely adapted for TV, theatre and cinema.
- Elephants Can Remember (1972)
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The old and strange tragedy that encompasses the death of a couple returns to the surface when a writer calls Hercule Poirot to solve the case so far without solution.
As it has been 15 years since it happened, the memory of the people present at the time becomes the only way to understand what happened. As the title of the book itself points out, to unravel the enigma it will be necessary an elephant’s memory.
- Murder on the Orient Express (1934)
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One of the author’s most famous works, “Murder on the Orient Express” has as scenario a luxurious travel train, with very characteristic and also duly (without exception) suspicious characters.
When the train stops due to a heavy blizzard, a man is killed and it’s up to Poirot to find out which of the passengers is to blame.
The book has already been adapted several times, being the most recent to the cinema, in 2017.
- The Murder on the Links (1923)
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In “The Murder on the Links”, we see more closely Hercule Poirot and his construction as the main character of the queen of the crime.
When a friend of the detective sends a letter with a request for help because he fears that his life is at risk, Poirot goes immediately to him, but arrives too late, when Mr. Reinauld has already been murdered in the surroundings of his mansion, in a golf course.
The plot then revolves around the search for the murderer, with Hercule learning to deal with another investigator working on the case.
- A Murder is Announced (1950)
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An invitation to a crime scene is announced in a small local newspaper. That’s right, an invitation to watch a murder! The residents, thinking it’s a joke, come to the scene and actually witness a murder in cold blood.
The story has the fictional detective Miss Marple as responsible for the investigation, transporting us to an instigating and intelligent plot.
Agatha Christie has revolutionized the way of telling police stories, with elegance, mystery and unpredictable narratives, where even the most perceptive reader is unable to guess the author’s plan. For this reason and others that the Lady of Crime is read greedily to the present day, keeping her complexity of narration even in other times.
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The article above was edited by Clara Suaiden.
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